The Development of a Visualization Methodology for Integrated Coastal Management

Coastal management information is frequently communicated to stakeholders and the public through complicated management documents and engineering plans. With the recognition that public involvement in coastal decision-making processes should be widened have come calls to develop new techniques to communicate complicated coastal information. Using Virtual Reality Geographical Information Systems and visualization packages, such information may be presented using formats more suitable for public consultation and information dissemination exercises than those currently employed. Using a site on the north Norfolk coast of England, an integrated Geographical Information Systems based methodology is presented that allows the visualization of proposed coastal management interventions. Visualizations have been produced that can be published in traditional paper-based management documents, or electronically. The different visualizations are compared and the technical issues surrounding their use discussed. It is argued that the methodology has clear advantages over traditional communication methods, although further research is necessary to determine how it may be practically employed by coastal managers.     

True Walking Distance to Transit

Abstract

People riding transit in the city of Detroit walk on average 0.8 miles (1.3 km) per round trip. The straight-line walking distance was found by buffering the bus stop locations and comparing them to the weighted US Census blocks. However, the true walking path follows the street pattern. Rather than undertaking network analysis, which would require connecting all addresses in the city with all bus stops, a Monte Carlo simulation was performed in geographic information system with random addresses. The simulation was performed over several addresses until convergence was achieved. The distances were converted to walking times and compared to the US National Household Transportation Survey.     

Large-scale physical controls on phytoplankton growth in the Irminger Sea Part I: Hydrographic zones, mixing and stratification

Hydrographic surveys in three consecutive seasons in the Irminger Sea in 2001/2002 have revealed six physical regimes (zones) in which different surface mixing and spring re-stratification processes dominate. They are the South Irminger Current, the North Irminger Current, the Central Irminger Sea, the Polar-origin East Greenland Current, the Atlantic-origin East Greenland Current and the Reykjanes Ridge. The variations in restratification processes in particular have significant implications for the timing of shallow spring mixed layer development and therefore the timing and strength of the spring bloom. The relative roles of heat and freshwater in controlling re-stratification are examined for each hydrographic zone, and it is shown that the simplest concept of solar warming generating spring stratification is appropriate for the Irminger Current and the central Irminger Sea. However in the East Greenland Current and the Reykjanes Ridge zones, the springtime arrival of fresh or saline water at the surface dominates re-stratification and generates the earliest and strongest spring blooms of the region. In the cool fresh centre of the Irminger Sea the relatively low chlorophyll-a throughout the year cannot be wholly explained by stratification or nutrient concentrations. Details of the annual cycle in temperature, salinity, chlorophyll-a and nutrients are presented for each hydrographic zone.     

Status and Priority Capacity Needs for Local Compliance and Community-Supported Enforcement of Marine Resource Rules and Regulations in the Coral Triangle Region

Combating illegal and destructive resource exploitation in the Coral Triangle is central to ensuring the long-term effective management of fisheries, marine protected areas, and climate change adaptation efforts. This article presents results of an investigation of the perceived level of local compliance and enforcement with marine resource rules and regulations and evaluates the effectiveness or potential for community-supported enforcement efforts in the Coral Triangle region. The findings are consistent with those of the literature on compliance and enforcement that any compliance and enforcement system must not only use deterrence, but also be perceived by fishers as being legitimate, fair, accountable and equitable and the need for developing a personal morality and a social environment that supports compliance. There is an opportunity to strategically build on shared value and cultural norms that can promote collaborative fisheries management as a mechanism to increase compliance through non-coercive efforts. Strengthening the long-term capacity for consistent delivery of local support to marine management and enforcement will increase local compliance rates through time.     

An activity-episode generation model that captures interactions between household heads: development and empirical analysis

In this paper, we develop an approach for modeling the daily number of non-work, out-of-home activity episodes for household heads that incorporates in its framework both interactions between such members and activity setting (i.e. independent and joint activities). Trivariate ordered probit models are estimated for the heads of three household types – couple, non-worker; couple, one-worker; and couple, two-worker households – using data from a trip diary survey that was conducted in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) during 1987. Significant interactions between household heads are found. Moreover, the nature of these interactions is shown to vary by household type implying that decision-making structures and, more generally, household dynamics also vary by household type. In terms of predictive ability, the models incorporating interactions are found to predict more accurately than models excluding interactions. The empirical findings emphasize the importance of incorporating interactions between household members in activity-based forecasting models.     

What is the relationship between online activity and driving-licence-holding amongst young adults?

There is growing interest amongst both practitioners and researchers in the correlates of young adults’ driving-licence-acquisition. One aspect of the ongoing scholarly debate is whether taking part in online (i.e. virtual) activities may be associated with young adults feeling less need to drive and hence to acquire a driving licence. This paper addresses this issue by drawing on analysis of two distinct datasets. Both contain rich pseudo-diary instruments in which people indicate detailed characteristics of their unique online-activity profile. This includes both indicators of the types of online activities in which respondents participate, and a separate metric of internet-use intensity. The latter is defined in one dataset as the amount of time/week spent online, and in the other dataset the frequency of their internet use. On the basis of a set of multivariate regression analyses, a positive (i.e. complementary) cross-sectional relationship between young adults’ online activity and licence-holding was found. We find that young adults who use the internet are, net of confounding effects, more likely to hold a driving licence than otherwise identical young adults who do not use the internet. Both datasets show this type of effect, and it is robust across a range of model specifications, including multi-stage estimations to address cross-correlation between indicators of internet usage. In addition to the positive net statistical association, we also report several other noteworthy effects. Of the six effects associated with online-activity types that are directly comparable between the two datasets, we find that the correlation in the parameter estimates across the two datasets is 0.63. This suggests similar types of relationships across the two datasets. Also, in several (but not all) of our analyses we found an inverted ‘U’ shaped ceteris paribus relationship between intensity-of-internet-use and licence-holding. The positive net statistical association between internet use and licence-holding is a different relationship than previously reported in the literature, and therefore further research is needed to reconcile the differences (which are likely due at least in part to different methodological approaches and data resources). Further research is also needed to continue to resolve between the relative saliency of other hypothesised determinants of licence-holding (e.g. economic and socio-demographic explanators, as well as licence-acquisition regimes that vary by time and place).     

Examining Residents’ Proximity,Recreational Use,and Perceptions Regarding Proposed Aquaculture Development

Competing interests related to marine resources have the potential to create conflict in the coastal zone. In many parts of the world marine farms exist in close proximity to areas that support recreation and tourism. The purpose of this study was to examine residents’ perceptions of proposed marine farm development related to their proximity to, and recreational use of, a coastal area in New Zealand. Residents from two areas were surveyed about their recreational use of the region and about perceptions related to marine farm development. Results indicated that those living closest to proposed marine farms used the area more often and in different ways, were most sensitive to marine farm development, and were less positive in their evaluations of marine farms, despite agreeing that marine farms can have positive economic consequences for nearby communities. Implications for using stakeholder input for the planning and management of marine farms are discussed.     

Maritime commercial malpractices and piracy under international law

The term ‘Piracy’ tends to be used in a loose, popular sense to refer to various acts of violence or lawlessness at sea which are not, strictly speaking, acts of piracy in law. In this article, the author examines the concept of piracy under international law and related notions such as hijacking and mutiny. In this context, he shows that the ‘malpractices’ of robber bands in such places as the inshore waters of Nigeria and The Philippines are not acts of piracy jure gentium.